Using discoverable peer-to-peer services to allow remote onboarding of headless devices over a Wi-Fi network

ABSTRACT

The disclosure relates to using discoverable peer-to-peer (P2P) services to remotely “onboard” headless devices over a Wi-Fi network. In particular, an onboardee device may enter an onboarding mode in which the onboardee device becomes a Wi-Fi access point (AP) and an onboarder device connected to a private Wi-Fi network may discover the onboardee device and establish a secured session to engage with the P2P services running thereon. The first time that the onboarder device and the onboardee device engage with one another, the secured session may be established based on a key exchange that uses a well-known secret (e.g., a default passphrase), which may be immediately changed to a shared secret. The onboarder device may then transfer an onboarding configuration to the onboardee device, which may be instructed to validate the onboarding configuration and connect to the Wi-Fi network prior to entering the connected mode.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY UNDER 35 U.S.C. §119

The present Application for Patent claims priority to ProvisionalApplication No. 61/847,030 entitled “USING DISCOVERABLE PEER-TO-PEERSERVICES TO ALLOW REMOTE ONBOARDING OF HEADLESS DEVICES OVER A WI-FINETWORK” filed Jul. 16, 2013, and assigned to the assignee hereof andhereby expressly incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various embodiments described herein generally relate to usingdiscoverable peer-to-peer services to allow remote onboarding ofheadless devices over a Wi-Fi network.

BACKGROUND

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computers and computernetworks that use a standard Internet protocol suite (e.g., theTransmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP)) tocommunicate with each other. The Internet of Things (IoT) is based onthe idea that everyday objects, not just computers and computernetworks, can be readable, recognizable, locatable, addressable, andcontrollable via an IoT communications network (e.g., an ad-hoc systemor the Internet).

A number of market trends are driving development of IoT devices. Forexample, increasing energy costs are driving governments' strategicinvestments in smart grids and support for future consumption, such asfor electric vehicles and public charging stations. Increasing healthcare costs and aging populations are driving development forremote/connected health care and fitness services. A technologicalrevolution in the home is driving development for new “smart” services,including consolidation by service providers marketing ‘N’ play (e.g.,data, voice, video, security, energy management, etc.) and expandinghome networks. Buildings are getting smarter and more convenient as ameans to reduce operational costs for enterprise facilities.

There are a number of key applications for the IoT. For example, in thearea of smart grids and energy management, utility companies canoptimize delivery of energy to homes and businesses while customers canbetter manage energy usage. In the area of home and building automation,smart homes and buildings can have centralized control over virtuallyany device or system in the home or office, from appliances to plug-inelectric vehicle (PEV) security systems. In the field of asset tracking,enterprises, hospitals, factories, and other large organizations canaccurately track the locations of high-value equipment, patients,vehicles, and so on. In the area of health and wellness, doctors canremotely monitor patients' health while people can track the progress offitness routines.

Accordingly, in the near future, increasing development in IoTtechnologies will lead to numerous IoT devices surrounding a user athome, in vehicles, at work, and many other locations. As more and moredevices become network-aware, problems that relate to configuringdevices to access wireless networks will therefore become more acute. Inparticular, existing mechanisms to configure devices to access wirelessnetworks tend to suffer from various drawbacks and limitations, whichinclude a complex user experience, insufficient reliability, andsecurity vulnerabilities, among other things. For example, configuringdevices to access infrastructure-mode Wi-Fi networks and other similarwireless networks typically requires association and authentication ofthe device. In certain cases, a process called “onboarding” may be usedto accomplish the secure admission to the wireless network, whereinonboarding may allow thin client devices, headless devices, and otherdevices that may presumably lack a friendly user interface to learnsufficient information about the destination wireless network toaccomplish the admission and authentication processes required to jointhe wireless network. However, mechanisms that are currently used toconfigure or “onboard” a device tend to focus on two general methods,which both suffer from various drawbacks and limitations. Moreparticularly, one current mechanism used to configure or onboard adevice focuses on an out-of-band conveyance in which networkconfiguration information is conveyed using some mechanism other thanthe wireless network itself (e.g., flashing lights, sounds, a camerascanning a quick response code, etc.). The other mechanism currentlyused to configure or onboard devices involves having the devicesnegotiate over the destination wireless network itself (e.g., accordingto the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) standard). However, as noted above,these mechanisms tend to be complex, unreliable, and/or insecure.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary relating to one or moreaspects and/or embodiments disclosed herein. As such, the followingsummary should not be considered an extensive overview relating to allcontemplated aspects and/or embodiments, nor should the followingsummary be regarded to identify key or critical elements relating to allcontemplated aspects and/or embodiments or to delineate the scopeassociated with any particular aspect and/or embodiment. Accordingly,the following summary has the sole purpose to present certain conceptsrelating to one or more aspects and/or embodiments relating to themechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form to precede the detaileddescription presented below.

According to an aspect, discoverable peer-to-peer (P2P) services may beused to allow remote “onboarding” of headless devices over a Wi-Finetwork. In particular, a device that is powered on may enter either an“onboarding” mode or a “connected” mode according to a configurationstate associated therewith. In either the onboarding mode or theconnected mode, the device may generally wait for other peer devices toconnect thereto and provide appropriate network configuration andcredentials information. However, the onboarding mode may differ fromthe connected mode in that the device may be configured to be a Wi-Fiaccess point (AP) awaiting Wi-Fi clients to connect in the onboardingmode, whereas the device may connect to a currently configured networkin the connected mode. In an embodiment, an application executing on adevice that runs P2P clients may scan for devices in the onboarding modeand connect to a private Wi-Fi network. The device may then use thediscoverable P2P services to discover other devices listening to publicannouncements associated therewith and then establish a session andengage with services on the discovered devices. During the engagement, asecured connection may be established based on a key exchange algorithmin which a shared symmetric key may be generated using shared evidence,wherein the first engagement between two devices may use a well-knownsecret (e.g., a default passphrase configured in a device during amanufacturing process), which may be immediately changed to a sharedsecret through a call to an appropriate service method. In response toestablishing the secured connection, an onboarding configuration can betransferred from an onboarder device to the onboardee device, which maythen be instructed to validate the onboarding configuration. Theonboardee device may then connect to the Wi-Fi network and leave theonboarding mode (e.g., entering the connected mode) in response tosuccessfully validating the onboarding configuration. Furthermore,substantially similar mechanisms can be used on the device that hasalready been “onboarded” (i.e., a device operating in connected mode).In particular, the onboarder device and the onboarded/onboardee devicemay be connected to the same Wi-Fi network and each may engage with P2Pservices discovered on the other device. As such, the onboarder devicemay remotely modify the network configuration on the onboarded/onboardeedevice and thereby cause the onboarded/onboardee device to shift to adifferent network.

According to an aspect, a message sequence in which the discoverable P2Pservices may allow remote onboarding of headless devices over a Wi-Finetwork may be initiated when an onboardee device starts up in aSoftware-enabled Access Point (SoftAP) mode (or an “onboarding” mode)and performs a broadcast search for a core daemon associated with thediscoverable P2P services. An onboarder device may then obtaininformation associated with the SoftAP that corresponds to the onboardeedevice (e.g., from a QR code scanned using a camera on the onboarderdevice, from a user of the onboarder device, etc.). In response tosuitably obtaining the SoftAP information corresponding to the onboardeedevice (e.g., an SSID and passphrase), the onboarder device may thenconnect to the SoftAP corresponding to the onboardee device and theonboardee device may in turn connect to the core P2P daemon running onthe onboarder device. The onboardee device may then transmit a publicannouncement signal, which may be detected at the onboarder device. Inan embodiment, if the onboarder device has an appropriate onboardinginterface, the onboarder device may establish a session with theonboardee device and engage with the services associated therewith.During the engagement, a secured connection may be established based ona key exchange algorithm in which a shared symmetric key may begenerated using shared evidence, wherein the onboarder device may thentransfer configuration information associated with a personal accesspoint (AP) to the onboardee device (e.g., an SSID, authenticationcredential, authentication type, etc.). The onboardee device may then beinstructed to connect to the personal AP and leave the onboarding modein response to successfully joining the personal AP. Furthermore, if theonboardee device supports fast channel switching, the onboarder devicemay receive a connection result signal when the onboardee devicecompletes the connection attempt against the personal AP, wherein theconnection result signal may be sent over the SoftAP link and indicatethe result from the connection attempt (e.g., validated, unreachable,unsupported protocol, unauthorized, error, etc.).

According to an aspect, another message sequence in which thediscoverable P2P services may allow remote onboarding of headlessdevices over a Wi-Fi network may be used when the onboarder device runsan operating system or other platform that lacks support to initiateWi-Fi scans programmatically via an application program interface. Inparticular, rather than prompting an end user to select an SSIDassociated with the SoftAP that corresponds to the onboardee device froma scan list and supply a passphrase associated with the SoftAP, thealternate message sequence described herein may prepare a dialogregarding a Wi-Fi settings screen or other user interface that theonboarder device otherwise employs to choose a Wi-Fi network (e.g.,because the appropriate SoftAP SSID cannot be obtained through aprogrammatically initiated Wi-Fi scan). Additionally, the onboarderdevice may include a facility to suggest a name prefix and passphraseassociated with the SoftAP and guide the end user to select the SoftAPfrom the appropriate Wi-Fi settings screen. The end user may then makethe selection, which may be provided to the application on the onboarderdevice, wherein the onboarder device and the onboardee device may thencommunicate in a similar manner as described above to establish a securesession. When the onboarder device is not capable of generating a Wi-Fiscan list, the alternate message sequence may include additionalcommunication flows in which the onboarder device uses anonboardee-assisted Wi-Fi scan to obtain the Wi-Fi scan list. Forexample, in an embodiment, the onboarder device may invoke anappropriate service method that instructs the onboardee device to scanall Wi-Fi access points in proximity thereto, and the onboardee devicemay subsequently return a Wi-Fi scan list that includes an array ofSSIDs and any associated authentication types to the onboarder device,thereby completing the onboardee-assisted Wi-Fi scan. In an embodiment,the alternate message sequence may then employ substantially similarmessage exchanges as those described above with respect to transferringthe personal AP configuration information to the onboardee device andremotely onboarding the onboardee device over the Wi-Fi network.

According to yet another aspect, a method may be utilized for onboardinga headless device with an onboarder device over a Wi-Fi network. Themethod may include connecting the onboarder device with a SoftAPcorresponding to the headless device and connecting the onboarder deviceand the headless device via a peer-to-peer connection. The headlessdevice may be configured via a service operating on the headless deviceto enable the headless device to connect with a personal AP of anotherWi-Fi network and leave the onboarding mode. The method may also includeattempting, via the peer-to-peer connection, to identify the headlessdevice operating on the other Wi-Fi network, and rediscovering theheadless device operating in the onboarding mode on the Wi-Fi network inresponse to the onboarding device being unable to identify the headlessdevice on the other network. Information is obtained, via the SoftAP,about an attempt by the headless device to connect to the other Wi-Finetwork, and the headless device is reconfigured via the service overthe peer-to-peer connection to enable the headless device to connectwith the personal AP of the other Wi-Fi network.

Other objects and advantages associated with the aspects and embodimentsdisclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based onthe accompanying drawings and detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of aspects of the disclosure and many ofthe attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the samebecomes better understood by reference to the following detaileddescription when considered in connection with the accompanying drawingswhich are presented solely for illustration and not limitation of thedisclosure, and in which:

FIG. 1A illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 1B illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with another aspect of thedisclosure.

FIG. 1C illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 1D illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 1E illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 2A illustrates an Internet of Things (IoT) device in accordancewith aspects of the disclosure, while FIG. 2B illustrates a passive IoTdevice in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a communication device that includes logic configuredto perform functionality in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a server according to various aspects of thedisclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a wireless communication network that may supportdiscoverable peer-to-peer (P2P) services, in accordance with an aspectof the disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an environment in which discoverable P2P services maybe used to establish a proximity-based distributed bus over whichvarious devices may communicate, in accordance with an aspect of thedisclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a message sequence in which discoverable P2P servicesmay be used to establish a proximity-based distributed bus over whichvarious devices may communicate, in accordance with an aspect of thedisclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates a system architecture in which discoverable P2Pservices may be used to allow remote onboarding of headless devices overa Wi-Fi network, in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIGS. 9A-B illustrate message sequences in which discoverable P2Pservices may be used to allow remote onboarding of headless devices overa Wi-Fi network, in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 10 illustrates a method in which an onboarder device may usediscoverable P2P services to remotely onboard an onboardee device over aWi-Fi network, in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 11 illustrates a method in which an onboardee device may usediscoverable P2P services to remotely onboard over a Wi-Fi network, inaccordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram that may correspond to a device thatuses discoverable P2P services to communicate over a proximity-baseddistributed bus, in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects are disclosed in the following description and relateddrawings to show specific examples relating to embodiments. Alternateembodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the pertinent art uponreading this disclosure, and may be constructed and practiced withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. Additionally,well-known elements will not be described in detail or may be omitted soas to not obscure the relevant details of the aspects and embodimentsdisclosed herein.

The terminology used herein describes particular embodiments only andshould be construed to limit any embodiments disclosed herein. As usedherein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to includethe plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises,”“comprising,” “includes,” and/or “including,” when used herein, specifythe presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

Further, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions tobe performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will berecognized that various actions described herein can be performed byspecific circuits (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC)), by program instructions being executed by one or moreprocessors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, these sequence ofactions described herein can be considered to be embodied entirelywithin any form of computer readable storage medium having storedtherein a corresponding set of computer instructions that upon executionwould cause an associated processor to perform the functionalitydescribed herein. Thus, the various aspects of the disclosure may beembodied in a number of different forms, all of which have beencontemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Inaddition, for each of the aspects described herein, the correspondingform of any such aspects may be described herein as, for example, “logicconfigured to” perform the described action.

As used herein, the term “Internet of Things device” (or “IoT device”)may refer to any object (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has anaddressable interface (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP) address, aBluetooth identifier (ID), a near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.)and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wiredor wireless connection. An IoT device may have a passive communicationinterface, such as a quick response (QR) code, a radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or the like, or an activecommunication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, atransmitter-receiver, or the like. An IoT device can have a particularset of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether theIoT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available fortask execution or busy, and so on, a cooling or heating function, anenvironmental monitoring or recording function, a light-emittingfunction, a sound-emitting function, etc.) that can be embedded inand/or controlled/monitored by a central processing unit (CPU),microprocessor, ASIC, or the like, and configured for connection to anIoT network such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example,IoT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators,toasters, ovens, microwaves, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools,clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners,thermostats, televisions, light fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers,electricity meters, gas meters, etc., so long as the devices areequipped with an addressable communications interface for communicatingwith the IoT network. IoT devices may also include cell phones, desktopcomputers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), etc. Accordingly, the IoT network may be comprised ofa combination of “legacy” Internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop ordesktop computers, cell phones, etc.) in addition to devices that do nottypically have Internet-connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

FIG. 1A illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system 100A in accordance with an aspect of thedisclosure. The wireless communications system 100A contains a pluralityof IoT devices, which include a television 110, an outdoor airconditioning unit 112, a thermostat 114, a refrigerator 116, and awasher and dryer 118.

Referring to FIG. 1A, IoT devices 110-118 are configured to communicatewith an access network (e.g., an access point 125) over a physicalcommunications interface or layer, shown in FIG. 1A as air interface 108and a direct wired connection 109. The air interface 108 can comply witha wireless Internet protocol (IP), such as IEEE 802.11. Although FIG. 1Aillustrates IoT devices 110-118 communicating over the air interface 108and IoT device 118 communicating over the direct wired connection 109,each IoT device may communicate over a wired or wireless connection, orboth.

The Internet 175 includes a number of routing agents and processingagents (not shown in FIG. 1A for the sake of convenience). The Internet175 is a global system of interconnected computers and computer networksthat uses a standard Internet protocol suite (e.g., the TransmissionControl Protocol (TCP) and IP) to communicate among disparatedevices/networks. TCP/IP provides end-to-end connectivity specifying howdata should be formatted, addressed, transmitted, routed and received atthe destination.

In FIG. 1A, a computer 120, such as a desktop or personal computer (PC),is shown as connecting to the Internet 175 directly (e.g., over anEthernet connection or Wi-Fi or 802.11-based network). The computer 120may have a wired connection to the Internet 175, such as a directconnection to a modem or router, which, in an example, can correspond tothe access point 125 itself (e.g., for a Wi-Fi router with both wiredand wireless connectivity). Alternatively, rather than being connectedto the access point 125 and the Internet 175 over a wired connection,the computer 120 may be connected to the access point 125 over airinterface 108 or another wireless interface, and access the Internet 175over the air interface 108. Although illustrated as a desktop computer,computer 120 may be a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a PDA, a smartphone, or the like. The computer 120 may be an IoT device and/or containfunctionality to manage an IoT network/group, such as the network/groupof IoT devices 110-118.

The access point 125 may be connected to the Internet 175 via, forexample, an optical communication system, such as FiOS, a cable modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, or the like. The access point 125may communicate with IoT devices 110-120 and the Internet 175 using thestandard Internet protocols (e.g., TCP/IP).

Referring to FIG. 1A, an IoT server 170 is shown as connected to theInternet 175. The IoT server 170 can be implemented as a plurality ofstructurally separate servers, or alternately may correspond to a singleserver. In an aspect, the IoT server 170 is optional (as indicated bythe dotted line), and the group of IoT devices 110-120 may be apeer-to-peer (P2P) network. In such a case, the IoT devices 110-120 cancommunicate with each other directly over the air interface 108 and/orthe direct wired connection 109. Alternatively, or additionally, some orall of IoT devices 110-120 may be configured with a communicationinterface independent of air interface 108 and direct wired connection109. For example, if the air interface 108 corresponds to a Wi-Fiinterface, one or more of the IoT devices 110-120 may have Bluetooth orNFC interfaces for communicating directly with each other or otherBluetooth or NFC-enabled devices.

In a peer-to-peer network, service discovery schemes can multicast thepresence of nodes, their capabilities, and group membership. Thepeer-to-peer devices can establish associations and subsequentinteractions based on this information.

In accordance with an aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 1B illustrates ahigh-level architecture of another wireless communications system 100Bthat contains a plurality of IoT devices. In general, the wirelesscommunications system 100B shown in FIG. 1B may include variouscomponents that are the same and/or substantially similar to thewireless communications system 100A shown in FIG. 1A, which wasdescribed in greater detail above (e.g., various IoT devices, includinga television 110, outdoor air conditioning unit 112, thermostat 114,refrigerator 116, and washer and dryer 118, that are configured tocommunicate with an access point 125 over an air interface 108 and/or adirect wired connection 109, a computer 120 that directly connects tothe Internet 175 and/or connects to the Internet 175 through accesspoint 125, and an IoT server 170 accessible via the Internet 175, etc.).As such, for brevity and ease of description, various details relatingto certain components in the wireless communications system 100B shownin FIG. 1B may be omitted herein to the extent that the same or similardetails have already been provided above in relation to the wirelesscommunications system 100A illustrated in FIG. 1A.

Referring to FIG. 1B, the wireless communications system 100B mayinclude a supervisor device 130, which may alternatively be referred toas an IoT manager 130 or IoT manager device 130. As such, where thefollowing description uses the term “supervisor device” 130, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that any references to an IoTmanager, group owner, or similar terminology may refer to the supervisordevice 130 or another physical or logical component that provides thesame or substantially similar functionality.

In one embodiment, the supervisor device 130 may generally observe,monitor, control, or otherwise manage the various other components inthe wireless communications system 100B. For example, the supervisordevice 130 can communicate with an access network (e.g., access point125) over air interface 108 and/or a direct wired connection 109 tomonitor or manage attributes, activities, or other states associatedwith the various IoT devices 110-120 in the wireless communicationssystem 100B. The supervisor device 130 may have a wired or wirelessconnection to the Internet 175 and optionally to the IoT server 170(shown as a dotted line). The supervisor device 130 may obtaininformation from the Internet 175 and/or the IoT server 170 that can beused to further monitor or manage attributes, activities, or otherstates associated with the various IoT devices 110-120. The supervisordevice 130 may be a standalone device or one of IoT devices 110-120,such as computer 120. The supervisor device 130 may be a physical deviceor a software application running on a physical device. The supervisordevice 130 may include a user interface that can output informationrelating to the monitored attributes, activities, or other statesassociated with the IoT devices 110-120 and receive input information tocontrol or otherwise manage the attributes, activities, or other statesassociated therewith. Accordingly, the supervisor device 130 maygenerally include various components and support various wired andwireless communication interfaces to observe, monitor, control, orotherwise manage the various components in the wireless communicationssystem 100B.

The wireless communications system 100B shown in FIG. 1B may include oneor more passive IoT devices 105 (in contrast to the active IoT devices110-120) that can be coupled to or otherwise made part of the wirelesscommunications system 100B. In general, the passive IoT devices 105 mayinclude barcoded devices, Bluetooth devices, radio frequency (RF)devices, RFID tagged devices, infrared (IR) devices, NFC tagged devices,or any other suitable device that can provide its identifier andattributes to another device when queried over a short range interface.Active IoT devices may detect, store, communicate, act on, and/or thelike, changes in attributes of passive IoT devices.

For example, passive IoT devices 105 may include a coffee cup and acontainer of orange juice that each have an RFID tag or barcode. Acabinet IoT device and the refrigerator IoT device 116 may each have anappropriate scanner or reader that can read the RFID tag or barcode todetect when the coffee cup and/or the container of orange juice passiveIoT devices 105 have been added or removed. In response to the cabinetIoT device detecting the removal of the coffee cup passive IoT device105 and the refrigerator IoT device 116 detecting the removal of thecontainer of orange juice passive IoT device, the supervisor device 130may receive one or more signals that relate to the activities detectedat the cabinet IoT device and the refrigerator IoT device 116. Thesupervisor device 130 may then infer that a user is drinking orangejuice from the coffee cup and/or likes to drink orange juice from acoffee cup.

Although the foregoing describes the passive IoT devices 105 as havingsome form of RFID tag or barcode communication interface, the passiveIoT devices 105 may include one or more devices or other physicalobjects that do not have such communication capabilities. For example,certain IoT devices may have appropriate scanner or reader mechanismsthat can detect shapes, sizes, colors, and/or other observable featuresassociated with the passive IoT devices 105 to identify the passive IoTdevices 105. In this manner, any suitable physical object maycommunicate its identity and attributes and become part of the wirelesscommunication system 100B and be observed, monitored, controlled, orotherwise managed with the supervisor device 130. Further, passive IoTdevices 105 may be coupled to or otherwise made part of the wirelesscommunications system 100A in FIG. 1A and observed, monitored,controlled, or otherwise managed in a substantially similar manner.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 1C illustratesa high-level architecture of another wireless communications system 100Cthat contains a plurality of IoT devices. In general, the wirelesscommunications system 100C shown in FIG. 1C may include variouscomponents that are the same and/or substantially similar to thewireless communications systems 100A and 100B shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B,respectively, which were described in greater detail above. As such, forbrevity and ease of description, various details relating to certaincomponents in the wireless communications system 100C shown in FIG. 1Cmay be omitted herein to the extent that the same or similar detailshave already been provided above in relation to the wirelesscommunications systems 100A and 100B illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B,respectively.

The communications system 100C shown in FIG. 1C illustrates peer-to-peercommunications between the IoT devices 110-118 and the supervisor device130. As shown in FIG. 1C, the supervisor device 130 communicates witheach of the IoT devices 110-118 over an IoT supervisor interface.Further, IoT devices 110 and 114, IoT devices 112, 114, and 116, and IoTdevices 116 and 118, communicate directly with each other.

The IoT devices 110-118 make up an IoT group 160. An IoT device group160 is a group of locally connected IoT devices, such as the IoT devicesconnected to a user's home network. Although not shown, multiple IoTdevice groups may be connected to and/or communicate with each other viaan IoT SuperAgent 140 connected to the Internet 175. At a high level,the supervisor device 130 manages intra-group communications, while theIoT SuperAgent 140 can manage inter-group communications. Although shownas separate devices, the supervisor device 130 and the IoT SuperAgent140 may be, or reside on, the same device (e.g., a standalone device oran IoT device, such as computer 120 in FIG. 1A). Alternatively, the IoTSuperAgent 140 may correspond to or include the functionality of theaccess point 125. As yet another alternative, the IoT SuperAgent 140 maycorrespond to or include the functionality of an IoT server, such as IoTserver 170. The IoT SuperAgent 140 may encapsulate gateway functionality145.

Each IoT device 110-118 can treat the supervisor device 130 as a peerand transmit attribute/schema updates to the supervisor device 130. Whenan IoT device needs to communicate with another IoT device, it canrequest the pointer to that IoT device from the supervisor device 130and then communicate with the target IoT device as a peer. The IoTdevices 110-118 communicate with each other over a peer-to-peercommunication network using a common messaging protocol (CMP). As longas two IoT devices are CMP-enabled and connected over a commoncommunication transport, they can communicate with each other. In theprotocol stack, the CMP layer 154 is below the application layer 152 andabove the transport layer 156 and the physical layer 158.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 1D illustratesa high-level architecture of another wireless communications system 100Dthat contains a plurality of IoT devices. In general, the wirelesscommunications system 100D shown in FIG. 1D may include variouscomponents that are the same and/or substantially similar to thewireless communications systems 100A-C shown in FIGS. 1-C, respectively,which were described in greater detail above. As such, for brevity andease of description, various details relating to certain components inthe wireless communications system 100D shown in FIG. 1D may be omittedherein to the extent that the same or similar details have already beenprovided above in relation to the wireless communications systems 100A-Cillustrated in FIGS. 1A-C, respectively.

The Internet 175 is a “resource” that can be regulated using the conceptof the IoT. However, the Internet 175 is just one example of a resourcethat is regulated, and any resource could be regulated using the conceptof the IoT. Other resources that can be regulated include, but are notlimited to, electricity, gas, storage, security, and the like. An IoTdevice may be connected to the resource and thereby regulate it, or theresource could be regulated over the Internet 175. FIG. 1D illustratesseveral resources 180, such as natural gas, gasoline, hot water, andelectricity, wherein the resources 180 can be regulated in addition toand/or over the Internet 175.

IoT devices can communicate with each other to regulate their use of aresource 180. For example, IoT devices such as a toaster, a computer,and a hairdryer may communicate with each other over a Bluetoothcommunication interface to regulate their use of electricity (theresource 180). As another example, IoT devices such as a desktopcomputer, a telephone, and a tablet computer may communicate over aWi-Fi communication interface to regulate their access to the Internet175 (the resource 180). As yet another example, IoT devices such as astove, a clothes dryer, and a water heater may communicate over a Wi-Ficommunication interface to regulate their use of gas. Alternatively, oradditionally, each IoT device may be connected to an IoT server, such asIoT server 170, which has logic to regulate their use of the resource180 based on information received from the IoT devices.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 1E illustratesa high-level architecture of another wireless communications system 100Ethat contains a plurality of IoT devices. In general, the wirelesscommunications system 100E shown in FIG. 1E may include variouscomponents that are the same and/or substantially similar to thewireless communications systems 100A-D shown in FIGS. 1-D, respectively,which were described in greater detail above. As such, for brevity andease of description, various details relating to certain components inthe wireless communications system 100E shown in FIG. 1E may be omittedherein to the extent that the same or similar details have already beenprovided above in relation to the wireless communications systems 100A-Dillustrated in FIGS. 1A-D, respectively.

The communications system 100E includes two IoT device groups 160A and160B. Multiple IoT device groups may be connected to and/or communicatewith each other via an IoT SuperAgent connected to the Internet 175. Ata high level, an IoT SuperAgent may manage inter-group communicationsamong IoT device groups. For example, in FIG. 1E, the IoT device group160A includes IoT devices 116A, 122A, and 124A and an IoT SuperAgent140A, while IoT device group 160B includes IoT devices 116B, 122B, and124B and an IoT SuperAgent 140B. As such, the IoT SuperAgents 140A and140B may connect to the Internet 175 and communicate with each otherover the Internet 175 and/or communicate with each other directly tofacilitate communication between the IoT device groups 160A and 160B.Furthermore, although FIG. 1E illustrates two IoT device groups 160A and160B communicating with each other via IoT SuperAgents 140A and 140B,those skilled in the art will appreciate that any number of IoT devicegroups may suitably communicate with each other using IoT SuperAgents.

FIG. 2A illustrates a high-level example of an IoT device 200A inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure. While external appearancesand/or internal components can differ significantly among IoT devices,most IoT devices will have some sort of user interface, which maycomprise a display and a means for user input. IoT devices without auser interface can be communicated with remotely over a wired orwireless network, such as air interface 108 in FIGS. 1A-B.

As shown in FIG. 2A, in an example configuration for the IoT device200A, an external casing of IoT device 200A may be configured with adisplay 226, a power button 222, and two control buttons 224A and 224B,among other components, as is known in the art. The display 226 may be atouchscreen display, in which case the control buttons 224A and 224B maynot be necessary. While not shown explicitly as part of IoT device 200A,the IoT device 200A may include one or more external antennas and/or oneor more integrated antennas that are built into the external casing,including but not limited to Wi-Fi antennas, cellular antennas,satellite position system (SPS) antennas (e.g., global positioningsystem (GPS) antennas), and so on.

While internal components of IoT devices, such as IoT device 200A, canbe embodied with different hardware configurations, a basic high-levelconfiguration for internal hardware components is shown as platform 202in FIG. 2A. The platform 202 can receive and execute softwareapplications, data and/or commands transmitted over a network interface,such as air interface 108 in FIGS. 1A-B and/or a wired interface. Theplatform 202 can also independently execute locally stored applications.The platform 202 can include one or more transceivers 206 configured forwired and/or wireless communication (e.g., a Wi-Fi transceiver, aBluetooth transceiver, a cellular transceiver, a satellite transceiver,a GPS or SPS receiver, etc.) operably coupled to one or more processors208, such as a microcontroller, microprocessor, application specificintegrated circuit, digital signal processor (DSP), programmable logiccircuit, or other data processing device, which will be generallyreferred to as processor 208. The processor 208 can execute applicationprogramming instructions within a memory 212 of the IoT device. Thememory 212 can include one or more of read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory (RAM), electrically erasable programmable ROM(EEPROM), flash cards, or any memory common to computer platforms. Oneor more input/output (I/O) interfaces 214 can be configured to allow theprocessor 208 to communicate with and control from various I/O devicessuch as the display 226, power button 222, control buttons 224A and 224Bas illustrated, and any other devices, such as sensors, actuators,relays, valves, switches, and the like associated with the IoT device200A.

Accordingly, an aspect of the disclosure can include an IoT device(e.g., IoT device 200A) including the ability to perform the functionsdescribed herein. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art,the various logic elements can be embodied in discrete elements,software modules executed on a processor (e.g., processor 208) or anycombination of software and hardware to achieve the functionalitydisclosed herein. For example, transceiver 206, processor 208, memory212, and I/O interface 214 may all be used cooperatively to load, storeand execute the various functions disclosed herein and thus the logic toperform these functions may be distributed over various elements.Alternatively, the functionality could be incorporated into one discretecomponent. Therefore, the features of the IoT device 200A in FIG. 2A areto be considered merely illustrative and the disclosure is not limitedto the illustrated features or arrangement.

FIG. 2B illustrates a high-level example of a passive IoT device 200B inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure. In general, the passive IoTdevice 200B shown in FIG. 2B may include various components that are thesame and/or substantially similar to the IoT device 200A shown in FIG.2A, which was described in greater detail above. As such, for brevityand ease of description, various details relating to certain componentsin the passive IoT device 200B shown in FIG. 2B may be omitted herein tothe extent that the same or similar details have already been providedabove in relation to the IoT device 200A illustrated in FIG. 2A.

The passive IoT device 200B shown in FIG. 2B may generally differ fromthe IoT device 200A shown in FIG. 2A in that the passive IoT device 200Bmay not have a processor, internal memory, or certain other components.Instead, in one embodiment, the passive IoT device 200B may only includean I/O interface 214 or other suitable mechanism that allows the passiveIoT device 200B to be observed, monitored, controlled, managed, orotherwise known within a controlled IoT network. For example, in oneembodiment, the I/O interface 214 associated with the passive IoT device200B may include a barcode, Bluetooth interface, radio frequency (RF)interface, RFID tag, IR interface, NFC interface, or any other suitableI/O interface that can provide an identifier and attributes associatedwith the passive IoT device 200B to another device when queried over ashort range interface (e.g., an active IoT device, such as IoT device200A, that can detect, store, communicate, act on, or otherwise processinformation relating to the attributes associated with the passive IoTdevice 200B).

Although the foregoing describes the passive IoT device 200B as havingsome form of RF, barcode, or other I/O interface 214, the passive IoTdevice 200B may comprise a device or other physical object that does nothave such an I/O interface 214. For example, certain IoT devices mayhave appropriate scanner or reader mechanisms that can detect shapes,sizes, colors, and/or other observable features associated with thepassive IoT device 200B to identify the passive IoT device 200B. In thismanner, any suitable physical object may communicate its identity andattributes and be observed, monitored, controlled, or otherwise managedwithin a controlled IoT network.

FIG. 3 illustrates a communication device 300 that includes logicconfigured to perform functionality. The communication device 300 cancorrespond to any of the above-noted communication devices, includingbut not limited to IoT devices 110-120, IoT device 200A, any componentscoupled to the Internet 175 (e.g., the IoT server 170), and so on. Thus,communication device 300 can correspond to any electronic device that isconfigured to communicate with (or facilitate communication with) one ormore other entities over the wireless communications systems 100A-B ofFIGS. 1A-B.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 includes logicconfigured to receive and/or transmit information 305. In an example, ifthe communication device 300 corresponds to a wireless communicationsdevice (e.g., IoT device 200A and/or passive IoT device 200B), the logicconfigured to receive and/or transmit information 305 can include awireless communications interface (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct,Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Direct, etc.) such as a wireless transceiverand associated hardware (e.g., an RF antenna, a MODEM, a modulatorand/or demodulator, etc.). In another example, the logic configured toreceive and/or transmit information 305 can correspond to a wiredcommunications interface (e.g., a serial connection, a USB or Firewireconnection, an Ethernet connection through which the Internet 175 can beaccessed, etc.). Thus, if the communication device 300 corresponds tosome type of network-based server (e.g., the application 170), the logicconfigured to receive and/or transmit information 305 can correspond toan Ethernet card, in an example, that connects the network-based serverto other communication entities via an Ethernet protocol. In a furtherexample, the logic configured to receive and/or transmit information 305can include sensory or measurement hardware by which the communicationdevice 300 can monitor its local environment (e.g., an accelerometer, atemperature sensor, a light sensor, an antenna for monitoring local RFsignals, etc.). The logic configured to receive and/or transmitinformation 305 can also include software that, when executed, permitsthe associated hardware of the logic configured to receive and/ortransmit information 305 to perform its reception and/or transmissionfunction(s). However, the logic configured to receive and/or transmitinformation 305 does not correspond to software alone, and the logicconfigured to receive and/or transmit information 305 relies at least inpart upon hardware to achieve its functionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 further includes logicconfigured to process information 310. In an example, the logicconfigured to process information 310 can include at least a processor.Example implementations of the type of processing that can be performedby the logic configured to process information 310 includes but is notlimited to performing determinations, establishing connections, makingselections between different information options, performing evaluationsrelated to data, interacting with sensors coupled to the communicationdevice 300 to perform measurement operations, converting informationfrom one format to another (e.g., between different protocols such as.wmv to .avi, etc.), and so on. For example, the processor included inthe logic configured to process information 310 can correspond to ageneral purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, a field programmable gatearray (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A generalpurpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, theprocessor may be any conventional processor, controller,microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implementedas a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP anda microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or moremicroprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration). The logic configured to process information 310 can alsoinclude software that, when executed, permits the associated hardware ofthe logic configured to process information 310 to perform itsprocessing function(s). However, the logic configured to processinformation 310 does not correspond to software alone, and the logicconfigured to process information 310 relies at least in part uponhardware to achieve its functionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 further includes logicconfigured to store information 315. In an example, the logic configuredto store information 315 can include at least a non-transitory memoryand associated hardware (e.g., a memory controller, etc.). For example,the non-transitory memory included in the logic configured to storeinformation 315 can correspond to RAM, flash memory, ROM, erasableprogrammable ROM (EPROM), EEPROM, registers, hard disk, a removabledisk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art.The logic configured to store information 315 can also include softwarethat, when executed, permits the associated hardware of the logicconfigured to store information 315 to perform its storage function(s).However, the logic configured to store information 315 does notcorrespond to software alone, and the logic configured to storeinformation 315 relies at least in part upon hardware to achieve itsfunctionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 further optionallyincludes logic configured to present information 320. In an example, thelogic configured to present information 320 can include at least anoutput device and associated hardware. For example, the output devicecan include a video output device (e.g., a display screen, a port thatcan carry video information such as USB, HDMI, etc.), an audio outputdevice (e.g., speakers, a port that can carry audio information such asa microphone jack, USB, HDMI, etc.), a vibration device and/or any otherdevice by which information can be formatted for output or actuallyoutputted by a user or operator of the communication device 300. Forexample, if the communication device 300 corresponds to the IoT device200A as shown in FIG. 2A and/or the passive IoT device 200B as shown inFIG. 2B, the logic configured to present information 320 can include thedisplay 226. In a further example, the logic configured to presentinformation 320 can be omitted for certain communication devices, suchas network communication devices that do not have a local user (e.g.,network switches or routers, remote servers, etc.). The logic configuredto present information 320 can also include software that, whenexecuted, permits the associated hardware of the logic configured topresent information 320 to perform its presentation function(s).However, the logic configured to present information 320 does notcorrespond to software alone, and the logic configured to presentinformation 320 relies at least in part upon hardware to achieve itsfunctionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 further optionallyincludes logic configured to receive local user input 325. In anexample, the logic configured to receive local user input 325 caninclude at least a user input device and associated hardware. Forexample, the user input device can include buttons, a touchscreendisplay, a keyboard, a camera, an audio input device (e.g., a microphoneor a port that can carry audio information such as a microphone jack,etc.), and/or any other device by which information can be received froma user or operator of the communication device 300. For example, if thecommunication device 300 corresponds to the IoT device 200A as shown inFIG. 2A and/or the passive IoT device 200B as shown in FIG. 2B, thelogic configured to receive local user input 325 can include the buttons222, 224A, and 224B, the display 226 (if a touchscreen), etc. In afurther example, the logic configured to receive local user input 325can be omitted for certain communication devices, such as networkcommunication devices that do not have a local user (e.g., networkswitches or routers, remote servers, etc.). The logic configured toreceive local user input 325 can also include software that, whenexecuted, permits the associated hardware of the logic configured toreceive local user input 325 to perform its input reception function(s).However, the logic configured to receive local user input 325 does notcorrespond to software alone, and the logic configured to receive localuser input 325 relies at least in part upon hardware to achieve itsfunctionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, while the configured logics of 305 through 325 areshown as separate or distinct blocks in FIG. 3, it will be appreciatedthat the hardware and/or software by which the respective configuredlogic performs its functionality can overlap in part. For example, anysoftware used to facilitate the functionality of the configured logicsof 305 through 325 can be stored in the non-transitory memory associatedwith the logic configured to store information 315, such that theconfigured logics of 305 through 325 each performs their functionality(i.e., in this case, software execution) based in part upon theoperation of software stored by the logic configured to storeinformation 315. Likewise, hardware that is directly associated with oneof the configured logics can be borrowed or used by other configuredlogics from time to time. For example, the processor of the logicconfigured to process information 310 can format data into anappropriate format before being transmitted by the logic configured toreceive and/or transmit information 305, such that the logic configuredto receive and/or transmit information 305 performs its functionality(i.e., in this case, transmission of data) based in part upon theoperation of hardware (i.e., the processor) associated with the logicconfigured to process information 310.

Generally, unless stated otherwise explicitly, the phrase “logicconfigured to” as used throughout this disclosure is intended to invokean aspect that is at least partially implemented with hardware, and isnot intended to map to software-only implementations that areindependent of hardware. Also, it will be appreciated that theconfigured logic or “logic configured to” in the various blocks are notlimited to specific logic gates or elements, but generally refer to theability to perform the functionality described herein (either viahardware or a combination of hardware and software). Thus, theconfigured logics or “logic configured to” as illustrated in the variousblocks are not necessarily implemented as logic gates or logic elementsdespite sharing the word “logic.” Other interactions or cooperationbetween the logic in the various blocks will become clear to one ofordinary skill in the art from a review of the aspects described belowin more detail.

The various embodiments may be implemented on any of a variety ofcommercially available server devices, such as server 400 illustrated inFIG. 4. In an example, the server 400 may correspond to one exampleconfiguration of the IoT server 170 described above. In FIG. 4, theserver 400 includes a processor 401 coupled to volatile memory 402 and alarge capacity nonvolatile memory, such as a disk drive 403. The server400 may also include a floppy disc drive, compact disc (CD) or DVD discdrive 406 coupled to the processor 401. The server 400 may also includenetwork access ports 404 coupled to the processor 401 for establishingdata connections with a network 407, such as a local area networkcoupled to other broadcast system computers and servers or to theInternet. In context with FIG. 3, it will be appreciated that the server400 of FIG. 4 illustrates one example implementation of thecommunication device 300, whereby the logic configured to transmitand/or receive information 305 corresponds to the network access points404 used by the server 400 to communicate with the network 407, thelogic configured to process information 310 corresponds to the processor401, and the logic configuration to store information 315 corresponds toany combination of the volatile memory 402, the disk drive 403 and/orthe disc drive 406. The optional logic configured to present information320 and the optional logic configured to receive local user input 325are not shown explicitly in FIG. 4 and may or may not be includedtherein. Thus, FIG. 4 helps to demonstrate that the communication device300 may be implemented as a server, in addition to an IoT deviceimplementation as in FIG. 2A.

In general, user equipment (UE) such as telephones, tablet computers,laptop and desktop computers, certain vehicles, etc., can be configuredto connect with each other either locally (e.g., Bluetooth, local Wi-Fi,etc.) or remotely (e.g., via cellular networks, through the Internet,etc.). Furthermore, certain UEs may also support proximity-basedpeer-to-peer (P2P) communication using certain wireless networkingtechnologies (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, etc.) that enabledevices to make a one-to-one connection or simultaneously connect to agroup that includes several devices in order to directly communicatewith one another. To that end, FIG. 5 illustrates a wirelesscommunication network or WAN 500 that may support discoverable P2Pservices. For example, in one embodiment, the wireless communicationnetwork 500 may comprise an LTE network or another suitable WAN thatincludes various base stations 510 and other network entities. Forsimplicity, only three base stations 510 a, 510 b and 510 c, one networkcontroller 530, and one Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)server 540 are shown in FIG. 5. A base station 510 may be an entity thatcommunicates with devices 520 and may also be referred to as a Node B,an evolved Node B (eNB), an access point, etc. Each base station 510 mayprovide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and maysupport communication for the devices 520 located within the coveragearea. To improve network capacity, the overall coverage area of a basestation 510 may be partitioned into multiple (e.g., three) smallerareas, wherein each smaller area may be served by a respective basestation 510. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of abase station 510 and/or a base station subsystem 510 serving thiscoverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In3GPP2, the term “sector” or “cell-sector” can refer to a coverage areaof a base station 510 and/or a base station subsystem 510 serving thiscoverage area. For clarity, the 3GPP concept of “cell” may be used inthe description herein.

A base station 510 may provide communication coverage for a macro cell,a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other cell types. A macro cell maycover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers inradius) and may allow unrestricted access by devices 520 with servicesubscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic areaand may allow unrestricted access by devices 520 with servicesubscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area(e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by devices 520 havingassociation with the femto cell (e.g., devices 520 in a ClosedSubscriber Group (CSG)). In the example shown in FIG. 5, wirelessnetwork 500 includes macro base stations 510 a, 510 b and 510 c formacro cells. Wireless network 500 may also include pico base stations510 for pico cells and/or home base stations 510 for femto cells (notshown in FIG. 5).

Network controller 530 may couple to a set of base stations 510 and mayprovide coordination and control for these base stations 510. Networkcontroller 530 may be a single network entity or a collection of networkentities that can communicate with the base stations via a backhaul. Thebase stations may also communicate with one another, e.g., directly orindirectly via wireless or wireline backhaul. DHCP server 540 maysupport P2P communication, as described below. DHCP server 540 may bepart of wireless network 500, external to wireless network 500, run viaInternet Connection Sharing (ICS), or any suitable combination thereof.DHCP server 540 may be a separate entity (e.g., as shown in FIG. 5) ormay be part of a base station 510, network controller 530, or some otherentity. In any case, DHCP server 540 may be reachable by devices 520desiring to communicate peer-to-peer.

Devices 520 may be dispersed throughout wireless network 500, and eachdevice 520 may be stationary or mobile. A device 520 may also bereferred to as a node, user equipment (UE), a station, a mobile station,a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, etc. A device 520 maybe a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wirelessmodem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptopcomputer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a smartphone, a netbook, a smartbook, a tablet, etc. A device 520 maycommunicate with base stations 510 in the wireless network 500 and mayfurther communicate peer-to-peer with other devices 520. For example, asshown in FIG. 5, devices 520 a and 520 b may communicate peer-to-peer,devices 520 c and 520 d may communicate peer-to-peer, devices 520 e and520 f may communicate peer-to-peer, and devices 520 g, 520 h, and 520 imay communicate peer-to-peer, while remaining devices 520 maycommunicate with base stations 510. As further shown in FIG. 5, devices520 a, 520 d, 520 f, and 520 h may also communicate with base stations500, e.g., when not engaged in P2P communication or possibly concurrentwith P2P communication.

In the description herein, WAN communication may refer to communicationbetween a device 520 and a base station 510 in wireless network 500,e.g., for a call with a remote entity such as another device 520. A WANdevice is a device 520 that is interested or engaged in WANcommunication. P2P communication refers to direct communication betweentwo or more devices 520, without going through any base station 510. AP2P device is a device 520 that is interested or engaged in P2Pcommunication, e.g., a device 520 that has traffic data for anotherdevice 520 within proximity of the P2P device. Two devices may beconsidered to be within proximity of one another, for example, if eachdevice 520 can detect the other device 520. In general, a device 520 maycommunicate with another device 520 either directly for P2Pcommunication or via at least one base station 510 for WANcommunication.

In one embodiment, direct communication between P2P devices 520 may beorganized into P2P groups. More particularly, a P2P group generallyrefers to a group of two or more devices 520 interested or engaged inP2P communication and a P2P link refers to a communication link for aP2P group. Furthermore, in one embodiment, a P2P group may include onedevice 520 designated a P2P group owner (or a P2P server) and one ormore devices 520 designated P2P clients that are served by the P2P groupowner. The P2P group owner may perform certain management functions suchas exchanging signaling with a WAN, coordinating data transmissionbetween the P2P group owner and P2P clients, etc. For example, as shownin FIG. 5, a first P2P group includes devices 520 a and 520 b under thecoverage of base station 510 a, a second P2P group includes devices 520c and 520 d under the coverage of base station 510 b, a third P2P groupincludes devices 520 e and 520 f under the coverage of different basestations 510 b and 510 c, and a fourth P2P group includes devices 520 g,520 h and 520 i under the coverage of base station 510 c. Devices 520 a,520 d, 520 f, and 520 h may be P2P group owners for their respective P2Pgroups and devices 520 b, 520 c, 520 e, 520 g, and 520 i may be P2Pclients in their respective P2P groups. The other devices 520 in FIG. 5may be engaged in WAN communication.

In one embodiment, P2P communication may occur only within a P2P groupand may further occur only between the P2P group owner and the P2Pclients associated therewith. For example, if two P2P clients within thesame P2P group (e.g., devices 520 g and 520 i) desire to exchangeinformation, one of the P2P clients may send the information to the P2Pgroup owner (e.g., device 520 h) and the P2P group owner may then relaytransmissions to the other P2P client. In one embodiment, a particulardevice 520 may belong to multiple P2P groups and may behave as either aP2P group owner or a P2P client in each P2P group. Furthermore, in oneembodiment, a particular P2P client may belong to only one P2P group orbelong to multiple P2P group and communicate with P2P devices 520 in anyof the multiple P2P groups at any particular moment. In general,communication may be facilitated via transmissions on the downlink anduplink. For WAN communication, the downlink (or forward link) refers tothe communication link from base stations 510 to devices 520, and theuplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from devices520 to base stations 510. For P2P communication, the P2P downlink refersto the communication link from P2P group owners to P2P clients and theP2P uplink refers to the communication link from P2P clients to P2Pgroup owners. In certain embodiments, rather than using WAN technologiesto communicate P2P, two or more devices may form smaller P2P groups andcommunicate P2P on a wireless local area network (WLAN) usingtechnologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi Direct. For example, P2Pcommunication using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, or other WLANtechnologies may enable P2P communication between two or more mobilephones, game consoles, laptop computers, or other suitable communicationentities.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 6 illustrates anenvironment 600 in which discoverable P2P services may be used toestablish a proximity-based distributed bus over which various devices610, 630, 640 may communicate. For example, in one embodiment,communications between applications and the like, on a single platformmay be facilitated using an interprocess communication protocol (IPC)framework over the distributed bus 625, which may comprise a softwarebus used to enable application-to-application communications in anetworked computing environment where applications register with thedistributed bus 625 to offer services to other applications and otherapplications query the distributed bus 625 for information aboutregistered applications. Such a protocol may provide asynchronousnotifications and remote procedure calls (RPCs) in which signal messages(e.g., notifications) may be point-to-point or broadcast, method callmessages (e.g., RPCs) may be synchronous or asynchronous, and thedistributed bus 625 (e.g., a “daemon” bus process) may handle messagerouting between the various devices 610, 630, 640.

In one embodiment, the distributed bus 625 may be supported by a varietyof transport protocols (e.g., Bluetooth, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, CDMA, GPRS,UMTS, etc.). For example, according to an aspect, a first device 610 mayinclude a distributed bus node 612 and one or more local endpoints 614,wherein the distributed bus node 612 may facilitate communicationsbetween local endpoints 614 associated with the first device 610 andlocal endpoints 634 and 644 associated with a second device 630 and athird device 640 through the distributed bus 625 (e.g., via distributedbus nodes 632 and 642 on the second device 630 and the third device640). As will be described in further detail below with reference toFIG. 7, the distributed bus 625 may support symmetric multi-devicenetwork topologies and may provide a robust operation in the presence ofdevice drops-outs. As such, the virtual distributed bus 625, which maygenerally be independent from any underlying transport protocol (e.g.,Bluetooth, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, etc.) may allow various security options, fromunsecured (e.g., open) to secured (e.g., authenticated and encrypted),wherein the security options can be used while facilitating spontaneousconnections with among the first device 610, the second device 630, andthe third device 640 without intervention when the various devices 610,630, 640 come into range or proximity to each other.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 7 illustrates a messagesequence 700 in which discoverable P2P services may be used to establisha proximity-based distributed bus over which a first device (“Device A”)710 and a second device (“Device B”) 730 may communicate. Generally,Device A 710 may request to communicate with Device B 730, whereinDevice A 710 may a include local endpoint 714 (e.g., a localapplication, service, etc.), which may make a request to communicate inaddition to a bus node 712 that may assist in facilitating suchcommunications. Further, Device B 730 may include a local endpoint 734with which the local endpoint 714 may be attempting to communicate inaddition to a bus node 732 that may assist in facilitatingcommunications between the local endpoint 714 on the Device A 710 andthe local endpoint 734 on Device B 730.

In one embodiment, the bus nodes 712 and 732 may perform a suitablediscovery mechanism at message sequence step 754. For example,mechanisms for discovering connections supported by Bluetooth, TCP/IP,UNIX, or the like may be used. At message sequence step 756, the localendpoint 714 on Device A 710 may request to connect to an entity,service, endpoint etc, available through bus node 712. In oneembodiment, the request may include a request-and-response processbetween local endpoint 714 and bus node 712. At message sequence step758, a distributed message bus may be formed to connect bus node 712 tobus node 732 and thereby establish a P2P connection between Device A 710and Device B 730. In one embodiment, communications to form thedistributed bus between the bus nodes 712 and 732 may be facilitatedusing a suitable proximity-based P2P protocol (e.g., the AllJoyn™software framework designed to enable interoperability among connectedproducts and software applications from different manufacturers todynamically create proximal networks and facilitate proximal P2Pcommunication). Alternatively, in one embodiment, a server (not shown)may facilitate the connection between the bus nodes 712 and 732.Furthermore, in one embodiment, a suitable authentication mechanism maybe used prior to forming the connection between bus nodes 712 and 732(e.g., SASL authentication in which a client may send an authenticationcommand to initiate an authentication conversation). Still further,during message sequence step 758, bus nodes 712 and 732 may exchangeinformation about other available endpoints (e.g., local endpoints 644on Device C 640 in FIG. 6). In such embodiments, each local endpointthat a bus node maintains may be advertised to other bus nodes, whereinthe advertisement may include unique endpoint names, transport types,connection parameters, or other suitable information.

In one embodiment, at message sequence step 760, bus node 712 and busnode 732 may use obtained information associated with the localendpoints 734 and 714, respectively, to create virtual endpoints thatmay represent the real obtained endpoints available through various busnodes. In one embodiment, message routing on the bus node 712 may usereal and virtual endpoints to deliver messages. Further, there may onelocal virtual endpoint for every endpoint that exists on remote devices(e.g., Device A 710). Still further, such virtual endpoints maymultiplex and/or de-multiplex messages sent over the distributed bus(e.g., a connection between bus node 712 and bus node 732). In anaspect, virtual endpoints may receive messages from the local bus node712 or 732, just like real endpoints, and may forward messages over thedistributed bus. As such, the virtual endpoints may forward messages tothe local bus nodes 712 and 732 from the endpoint multiplexeddistributed bus connection. Furthermore, in one embodiment, virtualendpoints that correspond to virtual endpoints on a remote device may bereconnected at any time to accommodate desired topologies of specifictransport types. In such an aspect, UNIX based virtual endpoints may beconsidered local and as such may not be considered candidates forreconnection. Further, TCP-based virtual endpoints may be optimized forone hop routing (e.g., each bus node 712 and 732 may be directlyconnected to each other). Still further, Bluetooth-based virtualendpoints may be optimized for a single pico-net (e.g., one master and nslaves) in which the Bluetooth-based master may be the same bus node asa local master node.

At message sequence step 762, the bus node 712 and the bus node 732 mayexchange bus state information to merge bus instances and enablecommunication over the distributed bus. For example, in one embodiment,the bus state information may include a well-known to unique endpointname mapping, matching rules, routing group, or other suitableinformation. In one embodiment, the state information may becommunicated between the bus node 712 and the bus node 732 instancesusing an interface with local endpoints 714 and 734 communicating withusing a distributed bus based local name. In another aspect, bus node712 and bus node 732 may each may maintain a local bus controllerresponsible for providing feedback to the distributed bus, wherein thebus controller may translate global methods, arguments, signals, andother information into the standards associated with the distributedbus. At message sequence step 764, the bus node 712 and the bus node 732may communicate (e.g., broadcast) signals to inform the respective localendpoints 714 and 734 about any changes introduced during bus nodeconnections, such as described above. In one embodiment, new and/orremoved global and/or translated names may be indicated with name ownerchanged signals. Furthermore, global names that may be lost locally(e.g., due to name collisions) may be indicated with name lost signals.Still further, global names that are transferred due to name collisionsmay be indicated with name owner changed signals and unique names thatdisappear if and/or when the bus node 712 and the bus node 732 becomedisconnected may be indicated with name owner changed signals.

As used above, well-known names may be used to uniquely describe localendpoints 714 and 734. In one embodiment, when communications occurbetween Device A 710 and Device B 730, different well-known name typesmay be used. For example, a device local name may exist only on the busnode 712 associated with Device A 710 to which the bus node 712 directlyattaches. In another example, a global name may exist on all known busnodes 712 and 732, where only one owner of the name may exist on all bussegments. In other words, when the bus node 712 and bus node 732 arejoined and any collisions occur, one of the owners may lose the globalname. In still another example, a translated name may be used when aclient is connected to other bus nodes associated with a virtual bus. Insuch an aspect, the translated name may include an appended end (e.g., alocal endpoint 714 with well-known name “org.foo” connected to thedistributed bus with Globally Unique Identifier “1234” may be seen as“G1234.org.foo”).

At message sequence step 766, the bus node 712 and the bus node 732 maycommunicate (e.g., broadcast) signals to inform other bus nodes ofchanges to endpoint bus topologies. Thereafter, traffic from localendpoint 714 may move through virtual endpoints to reach intended localendpoint 734 on Device B 730. Further, in operation, communicationsbetween local endpoint 714 and local endpoint 734 may use routinggroups. In an aspect, routing groups may enable endpoints to receivesignals, method calls, or other suitable information from a subset ofendpoints. As such, a routing name may be determined by an applicationconnected to a bus node 712 or 732. For example, a P2P application mayuse a unique, well-known routing group name built into the application.Further, bus nodes 712 and 732 may support registering and/orde-registering of local endpoints 714 and 734 with routing groups. Inone embodiment, routing groups may have no persistence beyond a currentbus instance. In another aspect, applications may register for theirpreferred routing groups each time they connect to the distributed bus.Still further, groups may be open (e.g., any endpoint can join) orclosed (e.g., only the creator of the group can modify the group). Yetfurther, a bus node 712 or 732 may send signals to notify other remotebus nodes or additions, removals, or other changes to routing groupendpoints. In such embodiments, the bus node 712 or 732 may send arouting group change signal to other group members whenever a member isadded and/or removed from the group. Further, the bus node 712 or 732may send a routing group change signal to endpoints that disconnect fromthe distributed bus without first removing themselves from the routinggroup.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 8 illustrates a systemarchitecture 800 in which discoverable P2P services used over a Wi-Finetwork may allow remote onboarding of headless devices (e.g., acomputer system or device that has been configured to operate without amonitor, keyboard, and mouse, and which can be controlled via a networkconnection). As shown in FIG. 8, the system architecture 800 may includean onboardee device 810 attempting to associate and authenticate to apersonal access point (AP) and thereby join the Wi-Fi network, whereinthe onboardee device 810 may correspond to a new device that has notpreviously been configured to access the Wi-Fi network or a device thatwas previously configured to access the Wi-Fi network and subsequentlyoffboarded (e.g., to reset the device to factory-default settings orotherwise change a configuration state associated with the device, tochange a configuration state associated with the Wi-Fi network, etc.).Furthermore, the system architecture 800 may include an onboarder device820 that been configured and validated on the Wi-Fi network and uses thediscoverable P2P services to remotely onboard the onboardee device 810to the Wi-Fi network.

In one embodiment, the onboardee device 810 and the onboarder device 820may run respective onboarding applications 812, 822 that communicatewith respective peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms 814 that provide thediscoverable P2P services that may facilitate the remote onboarding(e.g., the AllJoyn™ software framework mentioned above). As such, theonboardee device 810 and the onboarder device 820 may communicate withone another using the mechanisms described in further detail above toform a distributed bus 825 that may enable communication between therespective onboarding applications 812, 822, which may correspond to thelocal endpoints described above in connection with FIGS. 6-7.Furthermore, in one embodiment, the onboardee device 810 and theonboarder device 820 may run respective operating systems 816, 826 thatrun a host “daemon” bus process to handle message routing between theonboardee device 810 and the onboarder device 820. For example, in oneembodiment, the respective onboarding applications 812, 822 maycommunicate with the respective host daemons running on the onboardeedevice 810 and the onboarder device 820, wherein the respective hostdaemons may implement local segments of the distributed bus 825 andcoordinate message flows across the distributed bus 825. In thisconfiguration, the onboarding application 812 can make remote methodcalls to an onboarding service 818 that facilitates certain processes toconfigure and validate the onboardee device 810 in order to access theWi-Fi network, as will be described in further detail herein. In thismanner, the onboarding application 812 can communicate with theonboarding service 818 as though the onboarding service 818 were a localobject, wherein parameters may be marshaled at the source and routed offof the local bus segment by the local host daemon and then transparentlysent over a network link to the local host daemon on the onboarderdevice 820. The daemon running on the onboarder device 820 may thendetermine that the destination is the local onboarding application 822and arrange to have the parameters unmarshaled and the remote methodinvoked on the local onboarding application 822.

As such, the daemons may generally run in one or more backgroundprocesses and the onboarding applications 812, 822 and the onboardingservice 818 may run in separate processes, whereby the onboardingapplications 812, 822 and the onboarding service 818 may have respectivelocal “bus attachments” that represent the local host daemon and handlemessage routing therebetween. Alternatively, in certain cases, theonboardee device 810 may be a thin client, an embedded device, oranother device that has a constrained operating environment (e.g.,limited size, memory, processor speed, power, peripherals, userinterfaces, etc.). As such, where the onboardee device 810 has limitedcapabilities, bundling local bus attachments into each application orservice that uses the P2P platform 814 may interfere with performance(e.g., because substantial bus attachments may require substantialnetwork connections, memory, etc.). In these cases, rather than having alocal bus attachment within the onboarding application 812 and/or theonboarding service 818, the onboarding application 812 may insteademploy a thin client application program interface and the P2P platform814 may instead employ a thin client process that utilizes the hostdaemon on the onboardee device 810 running the onboarding application812. However, in either case, the call flows and behavior that occurbetween the onboardee device 810 and the onboarder device 820 toconfigure and validate the onboardee device 810 in order to access theWi-Fi network may be substantially the same whether the onboardingapplication 812 implements a local bus attachment to communicate withthe host daemon or communicates directly with the host daemon.

Having provided the above overview relating to the system architecture800 in which discoverable P2P services may be used to allow remoteonboarding of the onboardee device 810 over a Wi-Fi network, variousaspects that relate to the specific mechanisms that may be used to allowremote onboarding over a Wi-Fi network via discoverable P2P serviceswill now be described.

More particularly, when a device is powered, the device may typicallyeither enter an “onboarding” mode or a “connected” mode according to aconfiguration state associated therewith. In either the onboarding modeor the connected mode, the device may wait for other peer devices toconnect to the device and provide network configuration credentials andconfiguration information. Furthermore, in the onboarding mode, thedevice may become a Wi-Fi access point (AP) and await Wi-Fi clients toconnect thereto. For example, in one embodiment, the device in theonboarding mode may enter a Software-enabled Access Point (SoftAP) modein which a wireless client antenna may work as both the access point andthe client (e.g., software on the device may create a wireless orportable hotspot that other wireless devices in the vicinity can use,whereby cellular telephones or other devices with a client antenna and adata connection can act as an access point to serve other wirelessdevices in the vicinity that may otherwise lack a data connection).Alternatively, in the connected mode, the device may connect to awireless network for which the device has already been configured. Ineither the onboarding mode or the connected mode, the device maygenerally wait for other peer devices to connect thereto and provideappropriate network configuration and credential information.

Accordingly, as will be described in further detail herein, FIG. 9Aillustrates a message sequence 900A in which discoverable P2P servicesmay be used to allow remote onboarding of headless devices over a Wi-Finetwork. For example, in one embodiment, the message sequence 900A shownin FIG. 9A may occur between an onboardee device 910 attempting to joina personal Wi-Fi network and an onboarder device 920 that may remotelyonboard the onboardee device 910 to the personal Wi-Fi network. Inparticular, the onboardee device 910 and/or the onboarder device 920 maycorrespond to smart devices that may execute applications running P2Pclients, wherein the onboardee device 910 may startup in the SoftAP (or“onboarding” mode) and perform a broadcast search for a core daemonassociated with the discoverable P2P services. If available, theonboarder device 920 may scan a quick response (QR) code to obtaininformation associated with the SoftAP that corresponds to the onboardeedevice 910. Alternatively, the onboarder device 920 may scan for devicesin the SoftAP (or onboarding) mode and prompt an end user 925 to selecta SoftAP Service Set Identifier (SSID) from a list that includes anydevices that were found in the scan. For example, the SoftAP SSIDassociated with the onboardee device 910 may be found in response todiscovering the broadcast search transmitted by the onboardee device910. In the latter case, where the QR code was unavailable or the SoftAPinformation otherwise could not be obtained therefrom, the messagesequence 900A may further include receiving a SoftAP selection from theend user 925, wherein the application running on the onboarder device920 may then prompt the end user 925 to provide a passphrase associatedwith the SoftAP corresponding to the onboardee device 910. The onboarderdevice 920 may then connect to the SoftAP corresponding to the onboardeedevice 910 and the onboardee device 910 may in turn connect to the coreP2P daemon running on the onboarder device 920.

The onboardee device 910 may then transmit a public announcement signal,which may be detected at the onboarder device 920. In one embodiment, ifthe onboarder device 920 has an appropriate onboarding interface, theonboarder device 920 may establish a session with the onboardee device910 and engage with the services associated therewith. During theengagement, a secured connection may be established based on a keyexchange algorithm in which a shared symmetric key may be generatedusing shared evidence. For example, the first time that the onboardeedevice 910 and the onboarder device 920 attempt to engage with oneanother, the shared evidence may correspond to well-known evidence(e.g., a default passcode for the onboarding interface, which may beconfigured as part of factory settings during an original equipmentmanufacturing process). Subsequently, an appropriate service method maybe called to immediately alter the well-known or default evidence to ashared secret (e.g., a custom password established by the end user 925).In response to suitably establishing the secured connection, theonboarder device 920 may then call an appropriate service method totransfer configuration information associated with the personal Wi-Finetwork to the onboardee device 910. For example, in one embodiment, theconfiguration information transferred from the onboarder device 920 tothe onboardee device 910 may comprise an SSID, a passphrase or otherauthentication credentials, and/or an authentication type associatedwith a personal access point (AP) on the personal Wi-Fi network. In oneembodiment, the onboardee device 910 may then return a status signal tothe onboarder device 920 to indicate whether the personal APconfiguration information has been received and appropriately set, andthe onboarder device 920 may then instruct the onboardee device 910 toconnect to the personal AP. In one embodiment, in response to theonboardee device 910 successfully joining the personal AP, the onboardeedevice 910 may then call an appropriate service method to leave theonboarding mode. Furthermore, the same mechanisms can be used when theonboardee device 910 operates in the connected mode (i.e., has alreadybeen “onboarded”). For example, the onboardee device 910 may beconnected to the same Wi-Fi network as the onboarder device 920 anddiscover and engage with the P2P services running thereon, whereby theonboarder device 920 may remotely modify the network configurationassociated with the onboardee device 910 and thereby cause the onboardeedevice 910 to shift to a different network. Further still, if theonboardee device 910 supports fast channel switching, the onboarderdevice 920 may receive a connection result signal when the onboardeedevice 910 completes the connection attempt against the personal AP,wherein the connection result signal may be sent over the SoftAP linkand include an appropriate value to indicate the result from theconnection attempt (e.g., validated, unreachable, unsupported protocol,unauthorized, error, etc.).

According to an aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 9B illustrates anothermessage sequence 900B in which discoverable P2P services may be used toallow remote onboarding of headless devices over a Wi-Fi network. Inparticular, certain devices may run operating systems or other platformsthat lack support to initiate Wi-Fi scans programmatically via anapplication program interface (API), in which case certain operationsshown in FIG. 9A may not be supported. For example, an appropriatelyconfigured API can be used to programmatically initiate a Wi-Fi scan onthe Android operating system, whereas programmatically initiating aWi-Fi scan may be unsupported on other operating systems such as iOS. Assuch, in one use case, an onboarder device 920 running the Androidoperating system may use the message sequence shown in FIG. 9A, while anonboarder device 920 running the iOS operating system may use themessage sequence shown in FIG. 9B. In general, the message sequences900A and 900B may be substantially similar. However, rather thanprompting the end user 925 to select the SoftAP SSID from a scan listand supply the SoftAP passphrase, message sequence 900B may prepare adialog regarding a Wi-Fi settings screen or other user interface thatthe onboarder device 920 employs to choose a Wi-Fi network (e.g.,because the appropriate SoftAP SSID cannot be obtained through aprogrammatically initiated Wi-Fi scan). Additionally, the onboarderdevice 920 may include a facility to suggest a name prefix andpassphrase associated with the SoftAP and guide the end user 925 toselect the SoftAP from the appropriate Wi-Fi settings screen. The enduser 925 may then make the selection, which may be provided to theapplication on the onboarder device 920. In one embodiment, the messagesequence 900B may then have the onboarder device 920 and the onboardeedevice 910 communicate in a similar manner as described above withrespect to message sequence 900A until the onboarder device 920establishes the session with the onboardee device 910 and engages withthe services associated therewith if the appropriate onboardinginterface is available.

In one embodiment, at the point that message sequence 900A would promptthe end user 925 to select the personal AP from a Wi-Fi scan list, whichcannot be obtained through a programmatically-initiated Wi-Fi scan onthe onboarder device 920, message sequence 900B may include additionalcommunication flows in which the onboarder device 920 may use anonboardee-assisted Wi-Fi scan to obtain the Wi-Fi scan list. Forexample, in one embodiment, the onboarder device 920 may invoke anappropriate service method that instructs the onboardee device 910 toscan all Wi-Fi access points in proximity thereto, and the onboardeedevice 910 may subsequently return a Wi-Fi scan list that includes anarray of SSIDs and any associated authentication types to the onboarderdevice 920, thereby completing the onboardee-assisted Wi-Fi scan. In oneembodiment, message sequence 900B may then prompt the end user 925 toselect the personal AP in the same manner as message sequence 900A andinclude subsequent communication flows that are substantially the sameas those described above with respect to FIG. 9A.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 10 illustrates a method1000 that an onboarder device (e.g., onboarder device 820) may performto use the discoverable P2P services (e.g., the onboarding service 818)to remotely onboard an onboardee device (e.g., the onboardee device 810)over a Wi-Fi network, wherein the onboardee device may be a headlessdevice. For example, the headless device may be a device, that does notinclude a user interface, and as a consequence, must be configured via anetwork connection (e.g., via Wi-Fi). More specifically, the methoddepicted in FIG. 10 may be utilized when it is desirable to onboard theonboardee device to a personal Wi-Fi network (e.g., a private home Wi-Finetwork), but a user/operator is not able to manually touch and programthe onboardee device. The onboardee device, however, is capable ofoperating as a Wi-Fi access point (AP); thus the onboardee device may becommunicated with by way of an onboarding-Wi-Fi network initiated by theonboardee device. As one example, a headless device may be a waterheater that does not include a display or keyboard for a user tointeract with. But a water heater is merely one example of a headlessonboardee device, and one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciatethat there are a multitude of other types of devices that are verydifficult, if not impossible, to configure for onboarding without theuse of a network connection.

According to an aspect, to enter an onboarding mode, the onboardeedevice may switch from operating in a client mode to operate in SoftAPmode, and the onboarder device may initially obtain SoftAP informationcorresponding to the Wi-Fi access point (AP) setup by the onboardeedevice at block 1005. As one of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate, the SoftAP information may vary depending upon the type ofWi-Fi protocol that is utilized. But in some implementations, the SoftAPinformation may include an SSID, a passphrase or other authenticationcredentials, and/or an authentication type.

The onboarder device may obtain the SoftAP information in a variety ofways. In one implementation, a user of the onboarder device may receivethe SoftAP information from a manufacturer or supplier of the onboarderdevice, and the user may enter the SoftAP information into the onboarderdevice. In addition, a user may scan a QR code with a camera on theonboarder device, in which case the SoftAP information may be obtainedutilizing the scanned QR code. These are merely examples, however, andone of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, in view of thisdisclosure, that other methodologies may be utilized to obtain theSoftAP information. As depicted, in response to obtaining the SoftAPinformation, the onboarder device may then attempt to connect (e.g., asa client) to the SoftAP that corresponds to the onboardee device atblock 1010.

The onboarder device may then determine whether the attempted connectionwas successful at block 1015, wherein an error message may be generatedat block 1060 in response to the onboarder device failing to connect tothe SoftAP that corresponds to the onboardee device. Otherwise, inresponse to determining that the attempted connection was successful,the onboarder device may then search for, and connect to, the onboardingservice at block 1020 utilizing the distributed bus 828 of the P2Pplatform. Furthermore, in one embodiment, the onboarder device mayutilize the onboarding service 818 to configure the onboardee devicewith the personal AP information at block 1020 in response tosuccessfully connecting to the SoftAP and the onboarding service. Forexample, in one embodiment, the onboarder device may transfer an SSID,authentication credentials (e.g., a passphrase), and/or anauthentication type associated with the personal AP to the onboardeedevice to configure the onboardee device at block 1020, and theonboarder device may then instruct the onboardee device to connect tothe personal AP at block 1030.

In one embodiment, the onboarder device may then determine whether theonboardee device was successfully validated while attempting to connectto the personal AP at block 1035. For example, the onboardee device maygenerally perform a validation process in response to suitably receivingthe personal AP configuration and validation information transferred atblock 1025. As such, in response to determining at block 1035 that theonboardee device failed to successfully validate (e.g., because theonboardee device provided invalid authentication credentials orotherwise failed to provide valid configuration information), theonboardee device may generate error information at block 1060.Alternatively, if the onboardee device was successfully validated, theonboarder device may then attempt to locate the onboardee device on thepersonal AP at block 1040 and then determine whether the onboardeedevice was found on the personal AP at block 1045.

In one embodiment, the onboardee device is not capable of concurrentlycommunicating over the onboarding-Wi-Fi network (that the onboardeedevice initiated during the onboarding mode) and the personal Wi-Finetwork (e.g., home network) that the onboardee device is attempting tojoin at block 1025. As a consequence, when the onboardee device attemptsto join the personal Wi-Fi network, the onboardee device must disconnectfrom the onboarder device; thus the onboarder device is not able tocommunicate with the onboardee device. As a consequence, instead ofcommunicating with the onboardee device to determine whether theonboardee device successfully connected with the personal network, atblocks 1040 and 1045, the onboarder device attempts to identify theonboardee device on the private Wi-Fi network.

In this embodiment (where the onboardee device is not capable ofconcurrently communicating over the onboarding-Wi-Fi network (that theonboardee device initiated during the onboarding mode) and the otherpersonal Wi-Fi network, the onboarding device may attempt to identifythe onboardee device on the personal Wi-Fi network at block 1045 for athreshold period of time before attempting to rediscover and reconnectwith the onboardee device operating in onboarding mode at block 1010. Inresponse to determining that the onboardee device could not be found onthe personal AP (block 1045), error information to that effect may alsobe generated at block 1060.

For example, as discussed below with reference to FIG. 11, the onboardeedevice may generate and store information about its failed attempt toconnect to the personal AP, and if the onboarding device is able toconnect with the onboardee device (operating in onboarding mode) atblocks 1015 and 1020, the onboarding device may interrogate (beforeattempting to configured to onboardee device again at block 1025) theonboardee device to obtain the information about the onboardee device'sfailed attempt to connect to the personal AP. After obtaininginformation from the onboardee device about why the onboardee devicefailed to connect with the personal network, the onboarding device mayuse the information to reconfigure the onboardee device at block 1025.The information that the onboardee device may retain about its failedattempt to connect with the personal AP may include an indication thatthe personal AP was not reachable (e.g., because the personal AP to wastoo far away); an indication that the personal AP was reachable, but theonboardee device failed to authenticate; an indication that a localhardware/firmware issue (e.g., failed driver) prevented connection; andan indication that a cause of the failed attempt was unknown.

Otherwise, in response to determining that the onboardee device wasfound on the personal AP at block 1045, the onboarder device maydetermine that the onboardee device was successfully onboarded to theWi-Fi network and the onboarding process may end at block 1060.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 11 illustrates a method1100 that the onboardee device may perform to use the discoverable P2Pservices to remotely onboard to a personal Wi-Fi network. For example,in one embodiment, the method 1100 may generally be performed duringand/or in connection with the method 1000 shown in FIG. 10 where theonboarder device attempts to provision the onboardee device withconfiguration and credential information that the onboardee device canuse to join the personal Wi-Fi network, which may occur when theonboardee device enters an onboarding mode by initiating a Wi-Fi accesspoint (AP) of an onboarding-Wi-Fi network at block 1105 (e.g., while inan offboarded mode, after being reset to factory settings, after losingconnecting to the personal Wi-Fi network, etc.). Furthermore, the method1100 may be performed while the SoftAP associated with the Wi-Fi accesspoint (AP) is available, which may depend on the configuration stateassociated with the onboardee device. For example, in one embodiment,the SoftAP may be available when the onboardee device has aconfiguration state in which the personal AP is not configured, thepersonal AP is configured but not validated, the personal AP isconfigured but an error has occurred, and/or the personal AP isconfigured and the onboardee device is retrying to connect to thepersonal AP. For example, if the onboardee device has been configuredand been validated to the personal AP but fails to connect after aconfigurable number of delayed attempts, the onboardee device maytransition to the retry state in which the SoftAP is enabled to allowthe onboardee device to be reconfigured via the onboarding-Wi-Fi network(utilizing the distributed bus 828 of the P2P platform), and theonboardee device may then return to the configured and validated stateand retry to connect with the personal AP after a timer expires.

In one embodiment, the personal AP may generally not be configured whenthe method 1100 begins, whereby the onboardee device may initiallyreceive the personal AP configuration information at block 1110. Forexample, in one embodiment, block 1110 may include the onboardee devicereceiving a name (e.g., an SSID), authentication credentials (e.g., apassphrase), and/or an authentication type associated with the personalAP from the onboarder device over the onboarding-Wi-Fi network via theP2P platform. When the authentication type equals “any,” the onboardeedevice may attempt one or more possible authentication types supportedthereon to connect to the personal AP. In any case, the onboardee devicemay then attempt to connect to the personal AP using the receivedpersonal AP information at block 1115 and determine whether theattempted connection was successful at block 1120.

As discussed above, in one embodiment the onboardee device may notcapable of concurrently communicating over the onboarding-Wi-Fi network(that the onboardee device initiated during the onboarding mode) and thepersonal Wi-Fi network (e.g., home network) that the onboardee device isattempting to join at block 1115. As a consequence, when the onboardeedevice attempts to join the other personal Wi-Fi network, the onboardeedevice must disconnect from the onboarder device; thus the onboardeedevice is not able to communicate with the onboarder device. In responseto failing to connect to the personal AP at block 1120, errorinformation may be generated at block 1140. For example, the errorinformation may indicate that the personal AP was not reachable (e.g.,because the personal AP to was too far away), or the error informationmay indicate that a local hardware/firmware issue (e.g., failed driver)prevented connection, or the error information may indicate that a causeof the failed attempt was unknown. As discussed above, this informationis stored on the onboardee device and may be accessed by the onboarderdevice if the onboardee device reenters the onboarding mode (and theonboarder device reconnects with the onboardee device during theonboarding mode).

Otherwise, in response to successfully connecting to the personal AP,the onboardee device may attempt to validate with the personal AP atblock 1125 using mechanisms similar to those described in further detailabove. In response to determining that the attempted validation failedat block 1130, the onboardee device may then attempt to retry thevalidating process a particular number of times at block 1125 beforedeclaring that the passphrase and/or authentication type used at block1125 is not valid. For example, the validating process may be retried atblock 1125 a maximum number of times N, or the onboardee device mayalternatively not perform the maximum number of retries if the reasonfor the failure is known. In any case, in response to failing tosuccessfully validate, appropriate error information may be generatedand stored on the onboardee device at block 1140. For example, the errorinformation may indicate that the personal AP was reachable, but theonboardee device failed to authenticate. As shown, if the onboardeedevice successfully connects and authenticates to the personal AP, theonboarding process may be appropriately completed at block 1135 inresponse to successfully validating to the personal AP.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 12 illustrates acommunications device 1200 that may correspond to one or more devicesthat may use discoverable P2P services to communicate over aproximity-based distributed bus, as described in further detail above(e.g., an onboarder device, an onboardee device, an onboarded device,etc.). In particular, as shown in FIG. 12, communications device 1200may comprise a receiver 1202 that may receive a signal from, forinstance, a receive antenna (not shown), perform typical actions on thereceived signal (e.g., filtering, amplifying, down converting, etc.),and digitize the conditioned signal to obtain samples. The receiver 1202can comprise a demodulator 1204 that can demodulate received symbols andprovide them to a processor 1206 for channel estimation. The processor1206 can be a processor dedicated to analyzing information received bythe receiver 1202 and/or generating information for transmission by atransmitter 1220, a processor that controls one or more components ofcommunications device 1200, and/or a processor that both analyzesinformation received by receiver 1202, generates information fortransmission by transmitter 1220, and controls one or more components ofcommunications device 1200.

Communications device 1200 can additionally comprise a memory 1208 thatis operatively coupled to processor 1206 and that can store data to betransmitted, received data, information related to available channels,data associated with analyzed signal and/or interference strength,information related to an assigned channel, power, rate, or the like,and any other suitable information for estimating a channel andcommunicating via the channel. In an aspect, the memory 1208 can includelocal endpoint applications 1210, which may seek to communicate withendpoint applications, services etc., on communications device 1200and/or other communications devices 1200 associated through distributedbus module 1230. Memory 1208 can additionally store protocols and/oralgorithms associated with estimating and/or utilizing a channel (e.g.,performance based, capacity based, etc.).

It will be appreciated that data store (e.g., memory 1208) describedherein can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or caninclude both volatile and nonvolatile memory. By way of illustration,and not limitation, nonvolatile memory can include read only memory(ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memorycan include random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cachememory. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM is available inmany forms such as synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhancedSDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM).Memory 1208 of the subject systems and methods may comprise, withoutbeing limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

Communications device 1200 can further include distributed bus module1230 to facilitate establishing connections with other devices, such ascommunications device 1200. Distributed bus module 1230 may furthercomprise bus node module 1232 to assist distributed bus module 1230managing communications between multiple devices. In an aspect, a busnode module 1232 may further include object naming module 1234 to assistbus node module 1232 in communicating with endpoint applications 1210associated with other devices. Still further, distributed bus module1230 may include endpoint module 1236 to assist local endpoints incommunicating with other local endpoints and/or endpoints accessible onother devices through an established distributed bus. In another aspect,distributed bus module 1230 may facilitate inter-device and/orintra-device communications over multiple available transports (e.g.,Bluetooth, UNIX domain-sockets, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, etc.).

Additionally, in one embodiment, communications device 1200 may includea user interface 1240, which may include one or more input mechanisms1242 for generating inputs into communications device 1200, and one ormore output mechanisms 1244 for generating information for consumptionby the user of the communications device 1200. For example, inputmechanism 1242 may include a mechanism such as a key or keyboard, amouse, a touch-screen display, a microphone, etc. Further, for example,output mechanism 1244 may include a display, an audio speaker, a hapticfeedback mechanism, a Personal Area Network (PAN) transceiver etc. Inthe illustrated aspects, the output mechanism 1244 may include an audiospeaker operable to render media content in an audio form, a displayoperable to render media content in an image or video format and/ortimed metadata in a textual or visual form, or other suitable outputmechanisms. However, in one embodiment, a headless communications device1200 may not include certain input mechanisms 1242 and/or outputmechanisms 1244 because headless devices generally refer to computersystems or device that have been configured to operate without amonitor, keyboard, and/or mouse.

Additional details that relate to the aspects and embodiments disclosedherein are described and illustrated in the Appendices attached hereto,the contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety as part of this disclosure.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signalsmay be represented using any of a variety of different technologies andtechniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout theabove description may be represented by voltages, currents,electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields orparticles, or any combination thereof.

Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the variousillustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm stepsdescribed in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may beimplemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinationsof both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware andsoftware, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits,and steps have been described above generally in terms of theirfunctionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware orsoftware depends upon the particular application and design constraintsimposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement thedescribed functionality in varying ways for each particular application,but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted to departfrom the scope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration).

The methods, sequences and/or algorithms described in connection withthe aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in asoftware module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two.A software module may reside in RAM, flash memory, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM,registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form ofstorage medium known in the art. A storage medium is coupled to theprocessor such that the processor can read information from, and writeinformation to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storagemedium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storagemedium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in an IoT device. Inthe alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside asdiscrete components in a user terminal.

In one or more aspects, the functions described may be implemented inhardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implementedin software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as oneor more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium.Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media andcommunication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of acomputer program from one place to another. A storage media may be anyavailable media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example,and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM,EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used tocarry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or datastructures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connectionis properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if thesoftware is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote sourceusing a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wirelesstechnologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxialcable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologiessuch as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition ofmedium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes CD, laser disc, opticaldisc, DVD, floppy disk and Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproducedata magnetically and/or optically with lasers. Combinations of theabove should also be included within the scope of computer-readablemedia.

While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of thedisclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modificationscould be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosureas defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and/or actionsof the method claims in accordance with the aspects of the disclosuredescribed herein need not be performed in any particular order.Furthermore, although elements of the disclosure may be described orclaimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation tothe singular is explicitly stated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for onboarding a headless device to apersonal Wi-Fi network with an onboarder device over an onboarding-Wi-Finetwork, the method comprising: connecting the onboarder device with asoftware access point (SoftAP) corresponding to the headless device overthe onboarding-Wi-Fi network; connecting the onboarder device and theheadless device via a peer-to-peer connection; configuring, at theonboarder device and via the peer-to-peer connection, the headlessdevice via a service operating on the headless device to enable theheadless device to connect with a personal access point (AP) of thepersonal Wi-Fi network and leave an onboarding mode; attempting, at theonboarder device and via the peer-to-peer connection, to identify theheadless device operating on the personal Wi-Fi network; rediscovering,at the onboarder device, the headless device operating in the onboardingmode on the onboarding-Wi-Fi network in response to an onboarding devicebeing unable to identify the headless device on the personal Wi-Finetwork; obtaining, at the onboarder device and via the SoftAP,information about an attempt by the headless device to connect to thepersonal Wi-Fi network; reconfiguring, at the onboarder device, theheadless device via the service over the peer-to-peer connection toenable the headless device to connect with the personal AP of thepersonal Wi-Fi network.
 2. The method of claim 1, including: waiting fora threshold period of time before the rediscovering the headless deviceon the onboarding-Wi-Fi network.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein theinformation includes an indicator that the headless device was too farfrom the personal Wi-Fi network to connect to the other Wi-Fi network.4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information includes an indicationthat the personal Wi-Fi network was reachable but an authenticationerror occurred.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the informationincludes an indication that a hardware or software problem occurred onthe headless device.
 6. The method of claim 1, including: obtaining, atthe onboarder device, SoftAP information to connect the onboarder devicewith the SoftAP corresponding to the headless device, wherein the SoftAPinformation is selected from the group consisting of an SSID,authentication credentials, and an authentication type that isassociated with the SoftAP.
 7. A wireless device comprising: a Wi-Fitransceiver to communicate with Wi-Fi networks; a peer-to-peer platformconfigured to provide a peer-to-peer connection between the wirelessdevice and a headless device; an onboarding application to be executedby a processor that is configured to: connect the wireless device with asoftware access point (SoftAP) corresponding to an onboarding-Wi-Finetwork set up by the headless device; connect the wireless device andthe headless device via the peer-to-peer connection; configure, at thewireless device, the headless device via a service operating on theheadless device to enable the headless device to connect with a personalaccess point (AP) of a personal Wi-Fi network and leave an onboardingmode; attempt, at the wireless device and via the peer-to-peerconnection, to identify the headless device operating on the personalWi-Fi network; rediscover, at the wireless device, the headless deviceoperating in the onboarding mode on the onboarding-Wi-Fi network inresponse to an onboarding device being unable to identify the headlessdevice on the personal Wi-Fi network; obtain, at the wireless device andvia the SoftAP, information about an attempt by the headless device toconnect to the personal Wi-Fi network; reconfigure, at the wirelessdevice, the headless device via the service over the peer-to-peerconnection to enable the headless device to connect with the personal APof the personal Wi-Fi network.
 8. The wireless device of claim 7,wherein the onboarding application is configured to wait for a thresholdperiod of time before the rediscovering the headless device ononboarding-Wi-Fi network.
 9. The wireless device of claim 7, wherein theinformation includes an indicator that the headless device was too farfrom the personal Wi-Fi network to connect to the personal Wi-Finetwork.
 10. The wireless device of claim 7, wherein the informationincludes an indicator that the headless device was too far away from thepersonal Wi-Fi network to connect to the personal Wi-Fi network.
 11. Thewireless device of claim 7, wherein the information includes anindication that the personal Wi-Fi network was reachable but anauthentication error occurred.
 12. The wireless device of claim 7,wherein the information includes an indication that a hardware orsoftware problem occurred on the headless device.
 13. A non-transitory,tangible computer readable storage medium, encoded with processorreadable instructions to perform a method for onboarding a headlessdevice with an onboarder device over a Wi-Fi network, the methodcomprising: connecting the onboarder device with a software access point(SoftAP) corresponding to an onboarding-Wi-Fi network setup by theheadless device; connecting the onboarder device and the headless devicevia a peer-to-peer connection; configuring, at the onboarder device andvia the peer-to-peer connection, the headless device via a serviceoperating on the headless device to enable the headless device toconnect with a personal access point (AP) of a personal Wi-Fi networkand leave an onboarding mode; attempting, at the onboarder device andvia the peer-to-peer connection, to identify the headless deviceoperating on the personal Wi-Fi network; rediscovering, at the onboarderdevice, the headless device operating in the onboarding mode on theonboarding-Wi-Fi network in response to an onboarding device beingunable to identify the headless device on the personal Wi-Fi network;obtaining, at the onboarder device and via the SoftAP, information aboutan attempt by the headless device to connect to the personal Wi-Finetwork; reconfiguring, at the onboarder device, the headless device viathe service over the peer-to-peer connection to enable the headlessdevice to connect with the personal AP of the personal Wi-Fi network.14. A non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium, encodedwith processor readable instructions to perform a method for onboardinga headless device with an onboarder device over a Wi-Fi network, themethod comprising: connecting the onboarder device with a softwareaccess point (SoftAP) corresponding to an onboarding-Wi-Fi network setupby the headless device; connecting the onboarder device and the headlessdevice via a peer-to-peer connection; configuring, at the onboarderdevice and via the peer-to-peer connection, the headless device via aservice operating on the headless device to enable the headless deviceto connect with a personal access point (AP) of a personal Wi-Fi networkand leave an onboarding mode; attempting, at the onboarder device andvia the peer-to-peer connection, to identify the headless deviceoperating on the personal Wi-Fi network; rediscovering, at the onboarderdevice, the headless device operating in the onboarding mode on theonboarding-Wi-Fi network in response to an onboarding device beingunable to identify the headless device on the personal Wi-Fi network;obtaining, at the onboarder device and via the SoftAP, information aboutan attempt by the headless device to connect to the personal Wi-Finetwork; reconfiguring, at the onboarder device, the headless device viathe service over the peer-to-peer connection to enable the headlessdevice to connect with the personal AP of the personal Wi-Fi network.15. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium ofclaim 14, wherein the method includes: waiting for a threshold period oftime before the rediscovering the headless device on theonboarding-Wi-Fi network.
 16. The non-transitory, tangible computerreadable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the information includes anindicator that the headless device was too far from the personal Wi-Finetwork to connect to the personal Wi-Fi network.
 17. Thenon-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 14,wherein the information includes an indication that the other Wi-Finetwork was reachable but an authentication error occurred.
 18. Thenon-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 14,wherein the information includes an indication that a hardware orsoftware problem occurred on the headless device.
 19. Thenon-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 14,wherein the method includes: obtaining, at the onboarder device, SoftAPinformation to connect the onboarder device with the SoftAPcorresponding to the headless device, wherein the SoftAP information isselected from the group consisting of an SSID, authenticationcredentials, and an authentication type that is associated with theSoftAP.